Red Hat's Chairman to Step Down in August

Matthew J. Szulik will not seek re-election to Red Hat's Board of Directors.

Chairman and former CEO of Red Hat Matthew J. Szulik submitted his resignation to the board of directors Wednesday and will leave the company effective August 12.

"I am at a stage in my life when I would like to have more time and energy available to devote to my family and some of my persona interests outside of Red Hat," Szulik said in his resignation letter that was submitted to the SEC on May 26.

Szulik has been involved with Red Hat for more than a decade serving as both CEO and president. During his time at Red Hat, Szulik was awarded a CIO 20/20 honor from CIO Magazine in 2002. During his time as CEO, Red Hat entered the One Laptop per Child initiative, reached its one millionth deployment and achieved an estimated US$ 1 billion in cash reserves.

According to SEC filings, Szulik began buying large volumes of discounted Red Hat stock and selling it at market value in April. Of the US$ 80 million he's made this year off of Red Hat stock, just over half of it has been generated in the last 64 days. Currently, Red Hat (RHT) is trading for US$ 29.58.

No word yet on his replacement, but we'll update the story when more details come through.